Census reveals changing culture of Australia

New data from the 2011 census reveals a fundamental shift in the cultural mix of the country and a population growth of 8 per cent to 21.5 million.

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EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: A lot has changed in the past five years according to new data from the 2011 Census.

The population has grown to 25.5 million Australians, an increase of 8 per cent.

There's been a fundamental shift in the cultural mix of the country, and for the first time, the Census has counted the number of same-sex couples who've had marriage ceremonies overseas.

Simon Palan reports.

SIMON PALAN, REPORTER: Peter Furness and Theo Phillip got married in Canada six years ago, and while gay marriage isn't legal in Australia, they now take some satisfaction in at least being officially recognised here as a married couple.

The latest Census has counted the number of same-sex married couples as more than 1,300.

PETER FURNESS: Now that we're officially on the record somewhere it makes it much more difficult for certain politicians to pretend we don't exist and that we're not there.

SIMON PALAN: And the Census snapshot comparing 2011 with 2006 shows a record 14.3 per cent population increase in mining-rich WA.

ANDREW HENDERSON, BUREAU OF STATISTICS: Traditionally we associate rural remote areas with population decline and the Western Australian trend is right in the face of that.

BERNARD SALT, DEMOGRAPHER: Here is a city and state bursting at its seams and it still probably doesn't have sufficient labour to meet the demands of the resources boom.

SIMON PALAN: There's also been a 20.5 per cent lift in the number of Australians identifying themselves as Aboriginal or Torres Strait islander.

ANDREW HENDERSON: What a phenomenal shift in the number of people identifying as Indigenous in Australia. And a lot of that shift is surprisingly on the eastern seaboard.

BERNARD SALT: There is also a greater self-confidence within that community to identify with their heritage.

SIMON PALAN: Over the five-year period there's also been a 100 per cent increase in Indian-born Australians and a 54 per cent jump in those who were born in China. But there's been a decline in people coming from Mediterranean countries. In fact Mandarin has leap-frogged Italian to become the second-most popular spoken language after English.

BERNARD SALT: In fact Cantonese is not too far behind. So again, this is evidence of the Asian influence.

SIMON PALAN: On religion, there's been a 40 per cent rise in Australians identifying as Islamic in faith, but a record amount of Australians say they're of no religion at all.

Simon Palan, Lateline.

EMMA ALBERICI: And just a clarification there: I said 25.5 million; I of course meant 21.5 million, which is the current population according to the Census.